That Moment
by vacant houses
Summary: Canon compliant. Collection of one-shots and drabbles. Monsters: Riddick isn't a hero. But children keep asking him to protect them from the monsters all the same.
1. Remember That Moment

Summary: 

Johns has no control over the situation but he doesn't know it. Future's still in flux, still shattered. It doesn't start till Riddick makes it happen.

A/N: Because I died a lot whilst playing Escape from Butcher Bay and Dark Athena. Here I attempt to reconcile what that means for Riddick in the context of the rest of the series.

**Remember That Moment  
**

He is eight the first time it happens.

Juvie detention in some place no can be fucked remembering. He's already half-wild by then, trying his best to live his life on his own rules. He isn't the biggest kid there, not yet, but he knows this place like the back of his hand and most of the others know well enough to keep away.

And then there's Bulldog. Ugly piece of shit who's seven years older than him and likes to think he owns the place.

Pulls a knife on him one day and the glint in his eyes tell Riddick that he means it.

He's been in plenty of fights before but this is the first time its for his life. Adrenaline surges through his body and then…

Then time stops-

Fractures-

The world breaks-

It's the only way he can think to describe it.

There thousands of different ways this fight can go down and he sees them all. Watches himself fight Bulldog again and again, over and over. He sees all the ways the fight can go wrong, sees himself die in so many different combinations. Sometimes, he goes for the knife, sometimes he ignores it. And Bulldog puts it through his eye, through his chest, through his neck and blood spurts from his body, stealing his life away as it leaves.

Then there are the scenarios where he wins. Where he yanks the knife out of Bulldog's hands and put it through Bulldog's throat. Or manages to stick him with the blade somewhere less vital. Or he doesn't even fight at all but runs away instead…

It happens in an instant.

In a moment, it's all over and he needs to decide, fight or flight.

Two seconds ago, he would have run. Wouldn't have taken his chances. But after what he's seen...

He fights.

The beating he receives is brutal and almost kills him. Later on in the med center, he can only wonder at his own stupidity. Somewhere along the line, his vision had narrowed down, making him forget how much bigger Bulldog was or that he never acted on his own. That single moment had blinded him, made him cocky, feel infallible. He'd felt power then. Seeing all those ways it could have gone down, he'd thought there was no way he could lose.

Stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He swore then that he'd never do it again.

A promise that was a lot easier to make than to keep.

The freezes began to slip into his life after that, couldn't avoid them. He got into a lot more fights, watched the world break down on him. Learnt how to use it, how to plan a fight in that single beautiful moment of everything. But it didn't stop there, kept creeping more and more into his every waking breath.

He watched people, studied them. Could almost see their thoughts turning inside their brains. Could tell when a deal was going south long before the decision had even been made to double-cross him. Every second had a thousand possibilities and he watched and waited and sees them all.

It kept him alive, got him through situations he should have died a thousand times over. Amongst other things, strange voices inside his head, the eye-shine, mysterious blast of energy, escaping from Butcher Bay had just about ripped his head apart with all the freezes. There had been so many moments when all possibilities had been death and he'd somehow managed to find the one that got him through. He'd barely had any time to recover before he'd been plunged into that whole mess with the Dark Athena and the whole onslaught had began again.

And now...now he was here.

Here on this planet where danger lurked underneath his feet, death blew in on the wind and every moment was another step closer to the end.

"I want you to remember this moment," Johns tells him, smug and confident. "The way it could have gone and didn't."

He almost laughs then. John has no control over the situation but he doesn't know it. Future's still in flux, still shattered. It doesn't start till Riddick makes it happen.

The bounty hunter moves in close and holds out Riddick's goggles. He reaches for them and-

Time stops-

-fractures-

-a new moment, full of its own potential-

-possibilities shifts-

-the world breaks-

He grabs Johns' gun and turns it on its owner in half a heart-beat.

-a new reality is born-

"I want you to remember this moment," he growls.

And he makes it happen.


	2. Savage

Summary: Boss Johns is pretty damn sure it shouldn't have taken so many tranqs to bring Riddick down.  
Or: the one where Boss Johns has a minor freak-out and wonders if he is way out of his league.

-  


**Savage**

_Planet of origin: Unknown._

It's an innocuous thing on Riddick's file but Boss Johns doesn't realize how much it understates things until this very moment.

Unknown? Try Planet of the Fucking Doesn't Stop Moving Even When It Should Be Dead. Those were horse tranqs, he's pretty damn sure Dahl just shot Riddick full of and the man only goes down on the fourth one.

Four. It's insane. It's more than a little bit frightening. Space breeds all sorts of crazy shit but this is the first time he's confronted with anything like this. He feels like writing a strongly worded letter of complaint to the Big Guy. Dear Sir. Seriously, what the fuck? How is this fair at all? What did this bastard do to get such an unfair advantage over the rest of us? Sincerely, Feeling Utterly Shafted.

It's one thing to chase a man down, spend hours of your life studying every inch of his and then get confronted, slap-bang right in your face. Planet unknown, nightmare-fuel, not stopping when every bit of reasoning says he should be down and on his way to the afterlife. Maybe there was something to the name he'd seen scrawled in that cave, _Furya_. A long dead planet of myth, whispers of people that were more animal than man. He won't be forgetting this moment for a very long time now and he has the feeling he'll be seeing it every time he shuts his eyelids for the next few months.

He studies Riddick's motionless body carefully. Man's not moving but after what Johns has seen, he's not about to rule out that he's faking it. After a minute or so, he comes to the conclusion of two things:

One, Riddick is very much alive and breathing and not dead like Johns half hoped.

And two, he is unconscious. Like he should have been three and a half tranqs ago if he was anything resembling human.

His son took this beast down, all by himself. It's more than a little hard to believe and the conviction grows that this is the very thing that stole the life from Johns' boy. What hope would Billy have had, with no backup or gear, stuck on a planet in the middle of nowhere with this monster?

It's a question he hopes he'll have some answers to soon.


	3. Monsters

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary:

Riddick isn't a hero. But children keep asking him to protect them from the monsters all the same.

**Monsters**

"Are you going to stop the new monsters now?" Ziza asks and he stops.

Cute kid. Smart one too. The young ones normally are, survival instincts still strong and haven't been dulled by age and civility. They can tell, they recognize that he's the big bad and that if he's between them and the monsters, then maybe they've got a fighting chance. He won't try to save anyone but he will kill anything that comes his way. So sticking him in the middle really is the smartest move that anyone can make.

It says something about his life that he recognizes that everything's about to go to shit because a little girl's asking for his help. Children, always had something of a weak spot for them. He doesn't particularly like them but they're small and defenseless through no fault of their own. Adults, though, they can sink or swim by themselves.

He is nowhere near a hero, not by a long shot. It truly is a sign of desperation of Imam and his people that they've gone through the lengths to bring him here. Because he doesn't care, one way or another, every one dies. All they're doing is ensuring a few of their enemies will be going down along with them.

They're all staring, Ziza inclusive, waiting for an answer. He pulls his hood up and covers his head before treading away. Ziza won't be the only child he's walked away from, Jack isn't even first. There's a long trail of disappointed children he's left behind, ghosts of his past. And yet somehow...Imam's blunt stab manages to strike him in a way the other's hadn't.

And he's got a lot of memories of low points.

"Take me with you. Please!" The escape pod's launch can't be stopped and Lynn Silverman bangs on the door, begging for something he's unable to give. Girl's father has been turned into a killing machine and her mother murdered right before her eyes only minutes before and Riddick closes the pod just before she gets there and she can't escape. Trapped on the Dark Athena with Revas who is pissed off and certainly not dead even though Riddick's stabbed her own hairpin through her fucking throat.

Then, later.

"I knew you'd come back for me." Lynn's wrong but she doesn't know it. Girl's six years old and a genius but the only reason he boards the Athena again is because it's the only way off Aguerra. "The monsters are looking for me."

Story of his life.

Damn children and all the fucking monsters in the universe.

"When I say goodbye, it's forever."

Words he once said to Lynn, a promise he'd lived his whole life by.

A promise he think he is on the brink of breaking.

There's a planet out there that's calling.

END

x

A/N: All the dialogue here is from Chronicles of Riddick and Assault on Dark Athena. Just me, musing about all the children Riddick seems to pick up along the way. (And no, Lynn isn't mine either, she's from Assault on Dark Athena and I was mildly horrified when she gets left behins)


End file.
